Grown-ups color, too

Stamped and ready

I do, and always have, had a thing for hand-written letters. Individual, personal...there's something in handwriting that you don't capture elsewhere. Thoughts that typed lettering can't do justice for. Misspellings that a computer won't catch (sometimes done on purpose, as an inside joke to the recipient....or a needle in the side- ha.)

 

And aren't envelopes just another canvas? I think so.

What a lot we lost when we stopped writing letters. You can't reread a phone call.

~Liz Carpenter

 

To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart.

 ~Phyllis Theroux

Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls; for, thus friends absent speak.

 ~John Donne

 

Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them.

~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Or don't you like to write letters. I do because it's such a swell way to keep from working and yet feel you've done something.

 ~Ernest Hemingway

 

A woman seldom writes her Mind, but in her Postscript.

 ~Richard Steele, Spectator

 

Sometimes even more than the content, is the impression. Imagine if we all went through life smiling, and trying to make others smile. We could change the world one thought, one face at a time.

First Day pics

 My Little Man just started kindergarten in mid-August. Last one in school, folks!
His favorite animal is a "Daddy Lion"
Favorite color is red
Favorite food is "happy noddles" (aka elbow macaroni with cheese....they do look like smiles!)
Favorite drink is orange juice
Favorite place is SDC (Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO)
Favorite thing to do is build Legos
((round of applause for Little Man!!))

 My Dash boy is in 2nd grade this year, can you believe it??
His favorite animal is a tiger
Favorite color is red
Favorite food is shrimp
Favorite drink is punch
Favorite place is Fun City in Springdale, AR
Favorite thing to do is play with his friends
((round of applause for Dash!!))

 My Nature Boy is in 5th grade this year!! How has the time flown by so fast??
His favorite animal is a tiger
Favorite color is blue (and he went on to describe it as the rolling, changing blue of the ocean)
Favorite food is noodles. Yes, we're a pasta family, it would seem!
Favorite drink is water
Favorite place is home (my heart did a skip and double beat when he said this)
Favorite thing to do is play with his best friend and neighbor, Tyler
((round of applause for Nature Man!!))

My Girl is in 7th grade. SEVENTH GRADE. She just turned 13. (yes, I have a teen in the house now, and remind myself daily not to flip out about it!) She is my helper, my student teacher, my sweet darling. Poor thing, I'd just woken her up when I took the picture, above. ;)
Her favorites aren't listed on the board above, but here they are:
Favorite animal is a horse
Favorite color is violet
Favorite food is beef stroganoff
Favorite drink is water
Favorite place is the library
Favorite thing to do is write
((round of applause for My Girl!!))

Here's the crew, as we start this school year!

Dress-Up

  Playing Dress-Up with my two lovely sisters.

 I'm in one of my favorite polka dotty dresses, Amy is modeling a dress that she made herself (gorgeous!) and Julie is in a dress that she gave to me for my last birthday.

Dressing up, playing with hair and make-up, posing and photographing...it's all just another wonderful artistic outlet, allowing us to express who we are while experimenting with colors, options, styles. I may never outgrow the appeal of it!

 

 

 

All around the world

One of my very favorite globes is a tattered "well-traveled" one that a friend bought at a sale, and surprised me with.

The water-damaged, rusty loveliness adds something to it's unspoken tale of adventure, no?

Checks, in my house

1. Plates everywhere, including on the living room hutch.
2. A sale knob, found months ago, that happens to match my checkered platter, in the kitchen, perfectly.
3. Aprons hanging in the breakfast room.
I definitely have a thing for color, for pattern, for images that put a smile on my face. And, as I was glancing around the other day, I noticed the repetition of checks throughout my home. Seems I started incorporating them somewhat unintentionally.

The Gardens

 One of my favorite things, in this beautiful wide world, is to travel, explore, spend time outside. And who better to share it with than my Man and our four monkeys (and this time, my sister and her two monkeys, too!)

A BEAVER, y'all!

I found a leaf to match my belt!

Mud Buddies

I'm so blessed to have sisters who live nearby, and have kids around the same ages as my kids. We get together all.the.time, and the cousins have built-in best friends with them.

On Friday, we took the bunch to Jump Zone, the Splash Park, Compton Gardens. A day or so before that, we took them all to a park for a picnic and what ended up being a play-in-the-rain adventure, and then mud fight.

These are the things memories are made of-- mud balls, bare feet, rainy adventures, and splashing delights.

In case you didn't know... I am, most certianly, an Instagrammer ;)

Morning at dark

I've been out the door by 5am every morning lately, to go running, and back before the sun gets up. First cup of coffee before light starts streaming through the door, and little people start rubbing sleepy eyes.
The mornings start 100 times better, when I can get my blood pumping and energy kick-started, before the fierce heat ravages my home.

Yes, Good Morning, Sunshine.